Recommended Reading

ORIGINAL CORE TEXTS BY JOHN G. BENNETT, DEFINING THE METHOD.

++ These are now available on line

  • John G. Bennett: General Systematics. Article in Systematics Vol 1 No. 1, June 1963 ++
  • John G. Bennett: Systematics and General Systems Theory, Vol 1, No. 2, September

1963 ++

  • John G. Bennett & Anthony G. E. Blake: Systematics – a new technique in thinking,

1966 (Booklet) ++

  • John G. Bennett: Systematics and Systems Theories, Systematics Vol 7, No. 4,

March 1970 ++

  • John G. Bennett: The Dramatic Universe, Vols. I – IV, especially, Volume III Man and

His Nature, Chapter 37, ‘The Structure of the World’, 1966

  • John G. Bennett (ed. David Seamon): Elementary Systematics – a tool for understanding

wholes, from lectures given in 1963

  • John G. Bennett & David Bohm (edited Anthony Blake): The Bohm-Bennett Correspondence 1962-1964

ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT WORKS

[Note: Many of the following books are available directly from (and due to the ongoing efforts of) http://www.bennettbooks.org/]

Books by John G. Bennett exemplifying the approach

  • A Spiritual Psychology
  • Creation (edited Anthony Blake)
  • Deeper Man (edited by Anthony Blake)
  • Energies – material, vital, cosmic
  • Enneagram Studies (edited by Anthony Blake and with other authors)
  • Existence (edited Anthony Blake)
  • Making a New World

Critical texts for Bennett’s background in Gurdjieff and Ouspensky

  • G. I. Gurdjieff: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson [Gurdjieff’s ‘mythological’ approach]
  • P. D. Ouspensky: In Search of the Miraculous [contains Gurdjieff’s explanation of symbolism and significance of the series of numbers]

Complete list of relevant articles from the journal Systematics

From June, 1963, to March, 1974, Bennett and his research group at The Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences, published Systematics, a scholarly journal devoted largely to systematic studies. Some articles from this journal are listed below, but the interested reader should examine all eleven volumes.

  • General systematics (1, 1) ++
  • Systematics and General Systems Theory (editorial 1,2) ++
  • Systematics of a Manufacturing Process (1,2)
  • Educational Curricula (1,2)
  • Systematics in Operation (1,3) short note
  • Basic Dyads in Contemporary Physics - Bohm (1,3)++
  • Origin of Indo-European Culture (pp. 228-231 part 1,3)
  • Total Man - Bennett (largely material that appeared in DU III (1,4)
  • Solution of Technical Problems by Groups - Hodgson (2,1 & 2,3 & 2.4)
  • Concrete Significance of Number - Baynes (about I Ching & systematics 2,2)++
  • Intelligent Universe - Foster (2,4)
  • Towards an Objectively Complete Language - Bennett, Bortoft, Pledge (on three modes of togetherness 3,3) ++
  • Birth to Adulthood - Hodgson (3,3)
  • Specification and Assessment of Human Beings - Bennett (3,4)
  • Structured Process in Scientific Experiment - Pledge (3,4)
  • Implications of Avecibron's Notion of the Will - Blake (4,1)++
  • Resolution by a Rigorous Descriptive . . . Bortoft (4,2) Physics
  • Descriptive Model of Mental and Supramental Operations - Bennett (4,2)
  • The Arousing of Thought - Blake (4,3) marginal
  • Systematics of a Business Organisation - Low (4,3)
  • The Psychological Basis - Bennett (4,4) about education
  • Progress and Hazard - Bennett (5,4)
  • Introducing systemmetrics . . . Dodd (6,1) General systems Theory
  • Hazard and Scientific Advance - Blake (6,2) ++
  • Aspects of the Systematics of Language - Weightmann (6,4 & 7,3)
  • Systematics and Systems Theories - Bennett (7,4) ++
  • Mind and Matter - Bennett (8,3)
  • The Ambiguity of 'One' . . . Bortoft (8,3) Physics ++
  • Will Type Investigation - Edwards (8,3 & 8,4 &
  • The Whole - Bortoft (9,2)
  • The Future of Education - Hodgson (9,2)
  • Some Misconceptions of Systematics - Hodgson (9,4)
  • Basic Constructs of Systems Philosophy - Laszlo (10,1)
  • Philosophy of Organizations - Lessem (11,1 & 11,2)

Books expounding the method by other authors

  • John Allen: Succeed
  • Anthony Blake:
    • Systematics – a method of the intelligible and Toponomics
    • Systematics – a method of understanding in the study of complex wholes
    • Globalization - a case study in systematics
    • Globalization and the Higher Systems of Systematics
    • Gathering IV - globalization of history
    • The Monad
    • The Dyad
    • The Triad
  • Saul Kuchinsky: Search for Miraculous Management
  • Shantock Systematics Group: A Systematics Handbook
  • Albert Low: Zen and Creative Management
  • James Patton: Capturing Business Potential

Books relating particularly to the Enneagram

  • John G. Bennett et al (ed. Anthony Blake): Enneagram Studies
  • Anthony Blake: The Intelligent Enneagram
  • Richard Knowles: The Leadership Dance
  • Robert Campbell: Fisherman’s Guide – a systems approach to creativity and organization [a chapter based on Albert Low loc. cit]

Other representative books on wholeness and number

  • Anthony Blake: A Seminar on Time [uses systematics throughout]
  • Henri Bortoft: The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe's Way Toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature [Henri Bortoft was influenced by John G. Bennett]
  • Elliot Jacques, William Isaacs, E. Gibson: Levels of Abstraction in Logic and Human Action [contains reference to Bennett’s systematics]
  • Marie Louis von Franz: Time and Number [Jungian approach]
  • William Pensinger & Nha Trang: The Moon of Hoa Binh [a vast novel that incorporates Bennett’s ideas on time]
  • Michael S. Schneider: A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science [geometrical design approach]
  • Pratibha S. Eastwood: Nine Windows to Wholeness: Exploring Numbers in Sandplay Therapy [therapeutic approach, with reference to Ouspensky]

See the Compendium for a variety of links with historical and contemporary sources